This article explains a tried and tested method of backing up the hard disk drive and synchronising your data and includes a recommended process to minimise the risk of losing that precious data!

Hard Disk Drive Management

There are several approaches to Hard Disk Drive management and data backup. First you need to identify the system setup as computer configurations come in all shapes and sizes such as:

• One hard disk;
• One hard disk with two or more partitions;
• More than one hard disk with one or many partitions;

One Hard Disk

Many laptops and desktop computers are supplied with a single hard drive with only one 'apparent' partition. A partition is where your single hard disk drive is divided into sections called partitions. Often when 'My Computer' is clicked all the partitions can usually be seen such as "Local Disk (C:)" and  "Local Disk (D:)" etc.

Almost all laptops come with one hard disk and possibly two partitions with one of the partitions usually hidden. This hidden partition may contain a system recovery facility where the system can be restored back its purchased original state, this is not the same as the Windows restore function! Doing this usually destroys ALL data on your computer! After a system recovery is done your computer will be just as you first purchased it, however, all your data may be gone and all the extra programs you loaded on it will no longer be there either!

USB Memory Stick

If only one hard disk is available then a USB stick is the obvious choice to backup your My Documents data using either copy and paste or using the right click 'Send To' option. It's best to dedicate that drive for backups, so that your backup files don't accidentally get deleted, corrupted or infected. That is, plug in the USB drive only when you make a backup or when you have to restore from that backup. Unplug the drive when you are using the computer normally.

CD or DVD backup

While some software programs will allow backup to CD or DVD, the process is slow and even unreliable at times. If you have a lot of things installed on your hard disk, you may end up needing many CDs or DVDs just to backup your system. Since CD/DVD burning may be slow, your backup may take hours to complete, during which you will be stuck in front of the computer feeding it blank disks. And if one of those CDs or DVDs get corrupted, your entire backup set is no longer usable. It's really faster and cheaper to invest in a USB or external hard disk drive.

External Hard Disk Drive

A wise investment may be an external hard drive. Software can be used to automatically backup the data from the working hard drive to the external. An obvious drawback with this is that any hard drive with moving parts may fail including the external one! Solid State hard drive can be found with no moving parts but these are usually expensive with low capacities ( A Solid State hard drive is like a huge USB memory stick!).

So what is the best solution?

We think the best solution is not only to backup the entire main hard disk drive but to backup the entire hard disk drive and then use software to synchronise the actual user data! This solution will ensure that your backed up data is up to date should the windows installation get corrupted, infected or fails. This solution may be done on another partition on the same HDD or preferably on external media such USB stick or external hard drive. The benefit of an external solution is that should the main hard drive fail altogether the data saved on the external media can always be used to recover the system.

Recommended Backup Process

The first thing to do is decide on the configuration of the computer. After the config is decided upon it has to be prepared in readiness for the recommended backup process as outlined below. This is appropriate for Windows 2000/Xp and Vista as we have successfully performed this process on all three operating systems.

Configuration recommendations:

One hard drive (Laptop usually)

1. If there is only one apparent partition, get a partition manager software to manage the HDD partitions, we have used EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition successfully and have found it to be very effective and FREE!
2. Create another partition with the software to keep your synchronised data on, make it at least 20GB is size if you have the space.
3. To minimise the risk of losing the data even more, get an external hard disk drive.

Recommended Process

We have found that the most effective way to keep data safe and easily recoverable is to use software to backup the entire hard drive in its original state with all the programs that are commonly used in the windows operating environment such as Anti-Virus, MS Office and favourite photo software.

Hard Drive Backup

• Before this process is started, turn off or disable any internet connections, (turn off the Hub or pull the plug out).
• If the system has been used for a while then save all the user 'My Documents' files.
• Use the EzMail Backup process listed below to save your email data before you recover your system!
• Save all the user data to CD/DVD or USB stick or external hard drive.
• Perform a system recovery back to its original state or re-install windows manually.
• Load all the previously mentioned favourite programs such as anti virus, MS Office, Photo software etc...
• Install EzMail Backup and restore your email data.
• Put all the previously saved 'My Documents' data files back onto the system.
• Install a system backup software like Macrium Reflect or something similar onto the freshly installed operating system.
• Macrium Reflect can backup Hard drives and partitions, we use Macrium as its very effective and is FREE! The freeware edition will allow a full Hard Disk Drive backup and restore, the purchased edition simply allows more functionality for the discerning user. The benefit of this is that it can also create a 'Rescue boot CD' that is used to properly restore your windows environment with all your loaded programs and the data completely intact! Its important that the windows environment is a fresh install! Its interesting to note that the Windows restore function may restore the system along with any corruption or viruses that made it malfunction in the first place! sometimes it won't restore at all!
• Using Macrium, create a full HDD backup onto the second partition created earlier and/or onto an external hard drive. At a guess the saved file may be 3Gb to 4Gb in size depending what extra software was installed and the size of the data files put back. Macrium will compress the file as much as it can to reduce the saved file size on disk.

This completes the Hard Disk Drive backup process.

Backing up MS Outlook and Outlook Express

If MS Outlook or Outlook Express is used, the Import/Export facilities may not save the Email Accounts data. There is a FREE software available that will do this and save the email Accounts data!

We use a FREE software called EzEmail Backup.  We tried a few software's for email backup but EzEmail Backup seemed to be the best one in our opinion. EzMail Backup will also save the Internet Browser Favourites list as well! It also provides a schedule facility to auto backup. We like software's that have an Auto facility as well as being FREE!

Synchronise Data

Now that a copy of the operating system, user data and favourite programs has been saved, the next steps are to synchronise all the user data such as 'My Documents' and Email if that is used. Again, there is a some FREE software that can be used to save email accounts and all the email data and Synchronisation software to perform a simple auto backup and synchronisation of data files.

• We use a synchronisation software called Every Day Auto Backup. This is very simple FREE software that will automatically synchronise data from A to B. It can be set to do this automatically every time the computer is turned on. This effectively an install and forget program once setup, no popups, no ads, no click here and there to get it going!
• Create your first backup and forget it after this.

Summary

If a hard disk is backed up or mirrored it can always be called upon to "re-build" your system where a corrupt operating system has failed or a catastrophic hard disk failure has occurred. Using data synchronisation tools will significantly minimise the risk of losing data.

If you find this process hard to follow find a man that can and instruct them to follow this guide or ask them to recommend their own strategy. We use this process for all our customers computer repairs at it seems to work well.

Software Tools (Free Editions)

• EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition
• Macrium Reflect
• Every Day Auto Backup
• EzEmail Backup

Please note that the data backup and synchronising tools discussed here where FREE at the time of writing this article on the 8th October 2009.